We don't need no stinking information!

Everybody wants more information. The new IDEA wants information. The village, librarians and peasants have been asking the Dots for information. Nobody asks the Black Queen for information. That would be like attracting the attention of that big Eye in the top of Steven King's Dark Tower, the Eye that is ceaselessly sweeping the countryside looking for any trace of life, intelligence or learning in order to snuff it out. Besides, even if you aren't afraid of the Dark Tower, the Black Queen never answers. However, the new IDEA might yet be Dotland's champion. She was brave enough to ask the Black Queen for information. The Black Queen, after promising to deliver the information, scurried to her sidekick, GoG. "GoG, the new IDEA is asking for information." "Boss, we don't need no stinking information!" replied GoG. "We just make it up as we go along." "Well, can you make up some for the new IDEA and get her out of my office." "Oh, I don't think so, Boss. All of our made-up information is secret. She'll have to make up her own. " " Wait a minute" said the Black Queen, "If she makes up her own secret information, then she'll have secret information that we don't have and that's completely unacceptable. We'll go back to my office and tell her we're working on getting her information. Then we'll ignore her and she'll think we've left." The astute observer will notice that the Black Queen doesn't have a really good grasp of the reality thing, kind of like Emperor Shrub.

GLUE!!

In the recently concluded D1 Summit meetings, the White Queen and her aides announced to all and sundry that Dotland would again be sending supplies to the villages. The White Queen also announced there would be money for Dotland to buy the supplies to send to the villages. The Dots were cautiously optimistic. After all, the Black Dot Queen had made similar promises but the pigeons carrying the supply orders always mysteriously disappeared. After sending some trial pigeons successfully, the Dots decided that the White Queen was faithful to her word. The villages, upon hearing the news, immediately sent to Dotland asking what supplies were available. Purple dealt with one such query and sent back that book covers were available but the glue order still had not arrived. As Purple and her co-Dots were discussing the events of the day, a look of absolute horror crossed Purple's face. "I said Glue!!! I said we were out of GLUE!! Remember what happened when Turquoise said we were out of glue!! We barely survived that attack!!!" The other Dots rushed to comfort Purple. "Maybe the Black Queen won't notice. Remember she's Inattentive, Territorial but Inattentive. Maybe she'll miss this one." "I hope you're right." said Purple gloomily. "The librarians are sending pigeons to each other again. You know she hates that. It will keep her distracted until the glue comes in." said Sage. Somewhat comforted the Dots went home to a well-earned rest.

Cataloging magic

Silver spent the day casting spells at the Great Union Combined Catalog Institution. For those wondering, the GUCCI should contain the wisdoms of all the libraries in all the villages of the Duchy. Or it could be that it contains as much fallacy and superstition as actual wisdom. Of late, the GUCCI has become obstreperous, refusing to release information on demand, giving wrong answers instead of right answers, and generally being a pain. Dots suspect that the GUCCI might have been hanging around the Black Dot Queen and picked up some bad habits. Silver was attempting to knock out some of the more egregious fallacies with carefully placed spells. This involved a lot of grumbling and a great many consultations with Purple, Turquoise, and Sage over the finer points of Catalog Magic. Silver was overheard muttering "Would you look for your mother under that heading?!" and Sage was heard exclaiming in a loud voice "How are you going to find the RIGHT dog book without an author?!!" There was also a lot of discussion about whether Cataloging Magic could be taught or had be absorbed through the skin like moisturizer. And then there was the whole discussion of whether Cataloging Magic was too dangerous to be taught, like enriching uranium. Would this require international inspections and lead to sanctions? Would teaching the small cataloging spells inevitably lead to that horror of all Catalog Magicians, the Uncontrolled Subject Heading Cascade? If the Dots don't hand out the right spells, will that little hedge witch, GoG, hand out her spells (shudder)? And then there is the whole religion issue. Is the LOC the one god or not? That can be argued endlessly. The Dots are relieved to be able to discuss philosophy instead of being tangled in the Black Queen's palace intrigues.

Dotland is a hive of activity

With the new IDEA all the Dots are busy as bees. Unlike the Black Dot Queen, the new IDEA seems to believe that libraries are about information. She has put all of the Dots to work flitting from place to place, gathering information, sorting it into compact, easy to access packets and storing it in the Web for libraries to use. What a concept! We were never sure what the Black Dot Queen believed libraries were about. Based on her actions, she seemed to believe that libraries were about to be GONE.

Overheard in the Pentacle Office

Black Queen "Staff, there are flocks of pigeons out there carrying message about ME! People are talking about ME behind my back! How do I stop them?"
(Staff is a very mysterious person, never seen in public. The Black Queen always says "I have no Staff". It doesn't seem to occur to her that there might be a connection between her refusal to acknowledge Staff and the lost phone messages, missed appointments and irate villagers that plague her so.)
Staff "They would like to talk about you in front of your face but you won't see them."
Black Queen "Drat! How do I keep them from talking WITHOUT seeing them. Why, I can't even find out what they are saying."
Staff "If you don't know what they are saying how do you know they are talking about you?"
Black Queen "I have my sources. I know! I'll send a proclamation by pigeon telling them to stop talking about me!"
Staff "Don't you remember, Your Blackness? When you send pigeons to the villages they send pigeons back with replies."
Black Queen " I don't want replies. I don't want to hear them! I don't want to see them! I WANT THEM TO STOP TALKING ABOUT ME!!!"

(At that point, Staff closed the door and the rest of the conversation is lost... except for some muffled screams and thuds.)

Some new ideas?

The new IDEA in Dotland has been bustling around the building and the Duchy spreading out small new ideas right and left. New ideas like Flexible Scheduling, Collaboration, Cooperation, Information, and (horrors) Customer Service. Those of you who know the history of Libraries will notice that these are not exactly NEW ideas. However, Dotland has not seen those ideas in a couple of years. In fact, Dotland was beginning to despair of ever seeing those ideas again. Dotland has been welcoming these fledgling ideas with open arms and cries of joy! Dotland would like to throw a party to celebrate but Dotland has been redtagged for having too many parties. The Dots explained that the parties were going-away parties and that the laughter was not joyous but sad. However, as we all know, there is no defense against Red Tag. There was a cake cutting for Red Dot's birthday but it wasn't held in Dotland. The Dots think the cake and candles possibly escaped the notice of the Red Taggers. The Dots would also like to celebrate the return of Red Dot to the Sneak building and the lunch table but haven't yet figured out the spell for a completely invisible and silent party. But their best minds are working on it!

A tale of sense and nonsense

Yesterday one of the computer imps escaped from his Web. He briefly played here and there before settling down to cast a dense yellow fog over all places of learning in the Duchy. The alert librarians were the first to notice the problem. They sent calls and pigeons far and wide with the message "We are currently surrounded by a dense yellow fog. What kind of NonSense is this?" The sorcerers at TiTS received the call and responded "Oh, it's WebSense again!" for that, in fact, was the culprit's name. They immediately sprang into action. In no time at all they had cast the appropriate spells, captured the miscreant imp and tossed him back into his place in the Web. Another Brisk Breeze Spell and the last of the yellow fog was dissipated. After that they cleaned up their spell-casting debris, wiped up the chalk marks, tossed the yellow message slips and went back to their normal routine of Not dealing with problems, Not answering messages, and Not receiving visitors. The rest of the Duchy went back to work. And that would have been the end of it but for an errant breeze that came in through the window and scooped up one of the yellow message slips, slipping it across the floor, out the door and down the hall. The wayward message slip was almost out the front door when GoG wandered out of her lair right in front of the message slip. She looked up and saw, right in front of her very eyes, words hanging in the air against a yellow background. And the words said "We are currently surrounded by a dense yellow fog. What kind of NonSense is this?" "I see it! I see the fog" she exclaimed not noticing the edges of the message slip or much of anything else. Immediately she rushed back into her lair and went to work. Using some common household items, rubber bands, paper clips, eye of newt, her second best stone tablet and third best chisel, she worked busily to assemble a COMMITTEE. Looking at her COMMITTEE and finding it good she notified the librarians "I have assembled a COMMITTEE to work on the important Canary Cloud issue. We will be consulting an astrologer to determine the most auspicious time for our next meeting. We will then put together a focus group to discuss other Canary, Buttercup, and Lemon issues. We will let you know our results before the end of the century." The librarians received the message and said "Canary Cloud? Buttercup? What is she on about now?" and tossed the message away. Later, as they discussed the days events over tea, they realized that GoG's Canary Cloud was probably the mischievous imp, WebSense. One wondered "Why would GoG create a COMMITTEE to investigate that imp, WebSense. She knows nothing about imps." Her friend replied "Well, she has the Web part down all right, I've seen it, but she hasn't got the Sense."

New Arrival in Dotland!!

There was great excitement in Dotland today with the arrival of a new Interim Director Educated Archivist. The Dots hope that the new IDEA will be a friend to Dotland and all of LibraryLand. They are especially pleased to see a new IDEA since the Black Dot Queen's only idea is to get rid of Dotland. A space for the new IDEA was a major topic of conversation in the morning. Then in the afternoon, the Black Dot Queen and her entourage swept through with the Sneak building. After dismissing all of the spaces as below her exacting standards, she demanded a space currently occupied by StudioLand. Her demands were initially refused, however, she threw herself on the floor kicking and screaming and got her way. After all the fuss, the Dots are uncertain of whether the new IDEA will take up permanent residence or will be just another temporary Lackey of the Black Queen.
On a other note GoG the Clueless issued a breathless invitation for all the newcomers in LibraryLand to come to take Tea. Unfortunately, her address book hasn't been updated this century. The "newcomers" from GoG's address books were puzzled to received visits from GoG's Welcome Wagon. After hearing about the fabled hospitality of LibraryLand, the real newcomers were left feeling, well, left out.

She's baaaaack!

Yesterday's blog was cancelled due to lack of interest. Let's face it, without Navy, Pink and Red, Dotland can be depressing. But there's nothing like a meeting with the Black Dot Queen to get the adrenaline flowing. Between the lies, the whines, the justifications, and the high-speed backpedaling, the Black Queen infused the Dots with energy, well, actually, fury. In today's meeting, the White Queen was, as always, charming, attentive and credible. The Black Dot Queen was the opposite. Her Blackness was late which is not the same as the late Black Queen, so don't get your hopes up. When she arrived she was obviously still under the White Queen's Sit-Down-And-Shut-Up spell. She confined her remarks to short denials, justifications and whines. At the conclusion of the meeting the White Queen left. The Black Queen was kept after for tardiness. The Dots tried to talk to Her Blackness about THE FUTURE.
The Black Queen "I had a Road Map to the Future, a really good Road Map, but one of my secretaries left and took part of the map with her."
Dots "Can you show us what's left?"
BQ "My Map went through Density, but someone (no names, but she looked hard at Silver) threw a wrench at it and tore it."
Dots "Can you show us the torn Map?"
BQ "No, because it's not complete."
Dots "Well, can you tell us, sort of, in general, in manner or speaking, hypothetically, what was at the end of the road on your Map."
BQ "No".
Silver had been hoping for at least a general sort of statement like the closing to "Raising Arizona" where HI McDonnough (Nicholas Cage) describes his dream
And it seemed real. It seemed like us. And it seemed like, well... Our home... If not Arizona, then a land, not too far away, where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved... I dunno, maybe it was Utah. (From Wikipedia) However, the Black Queen was to tricky to commit to anything like a positive vision of the future.
The Black Dot Queen has always claimed to be a "big picture" person. I think we are now finding out that her big picture is nicely matted and framed but unfortunately empty.
Although Indigo thinks the Black Queen's big picture is more like a Jackson Pollock, full of dribbles and black spatters.
The RightSizing of Dotland was discussed in the meeting. The White Queen might be able protect the Dots from the Sword of Rightsizing. Here are some words related to Rightsizing. Dumbsizing which is what the Black Queen did to Dotland. Dumbsizing is followed immediately by Capsizing which is what is happening to the Duchy. If the Black Queen won't even show us her road map why is the rest of the Duchy following it off the cliff? A final word of the day is Uninstalled. The software package, Black Dot Queen 1.0 is obviously incompatible with School Librarian 2006 and Dotland 2006. Black Dot Queen 1.0 needs to be Uninstalled and replaced with Library Coordinator 2006 which should be compatible with current versions of School Librarian and Dotland. (Note: Manual for School Librarian 2006 is not available online. You'll have to make do with School Librarian 2001)

Another quiet day in Dotland

The Black Dot Queen sent a veritable flurry of pigeons to Dotland today. Unlike her usual heavily armed and armored hostile pigeon bullies, today's pigeons were subdued and gray. Maybe she is still under the influence of a Be Nice spell cast by the White Queen. The Dots are eagerly awaiting their meeting with the White Queen later this week. They have learned that the Black Dot Queen will also be in attendance. It's probably better that way. One gets nervous when the Black Dot Queen is out of sight.

Someone pointed out today that even if the Black Dot Queen from this point on behaves as the team player and great communicator that she currently pretends to be, her mistakes of this time will still not be forgotten or forgiven for years. She could have taken up drug addiction or alcoholism and been forgiven faster.

The Duchy: A History

Once upon a time there was a small but prosperous duchy nestled in a beautiful forested valley surrounded by towering mountains. The Duchy was ruled by Good King Hairboy and Good King Hairboy was ruled by a wise and trusty Band of duly elected Advisors. (Enough! Time for some truth in advertising. Small? Well, smaller than nearby Table Duchy in the Dead Bird metropolis. Prosperous? In a pig's eye! Beautiful? Forested? Get a grip! And Good Kind Hairboy and his advisors? Don't even get me started! However, the mountains are nice and do sort of tower especially on days when the sky is blue and the air is clear.) At first the Duchy was well pleased with King Hairboy. King Hairboy said the life of the Duchy was being choked by thickets of deadwood. So the Band of Advisors fashioned an Axe of Early Retirement and King Hairboy wielded it mightily. Very shortly the Band of Advisors noticed that King Hairboy was really only interested in a bigger allowance, a new highrise castle, and more hair products. They seized the Early Retirement Axe and used it on Hairboy. Hairboy was replaced by Duke Phfffr. The Duke had already run into the Early Retirement Axe but was willing to bind his wounds and reenter the fray. The Band of Advisors had learned their lesson about axes so they gave Duke Phfffr the Sword of RightSizing. At first the Duke used the Sword wisely. There had been many complaints about the Department of PlanningLearningThinkingReadingWritingControlling
and GeneralInterferenceInOtherPeople'sAffairs. (Mostly that their name was too long, but some people did say they wanted to do their own reading and thinking.) Duke Phfffr used the Sword on the Department of ... (I'm not doin' the full name again!) including the Black Dot Queen's household staff. (In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.) The Black Dot Queen had an absolute snit fit and has been sulking ever since. The Black Dot Queen has been skulking around attempting to seize the Sword of RightSizing and use it on someone else. Last year she managed to sneak the Sword out of the Castle to use on Dotland. Fortunately, she shared her plan with her friend GoG, long an enemy of Dotland. GoG couldn't resist an opportunity to crow and sent to Dotland "Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, you'll be gone tomorrow." Forewarned Dotland had time to prepare for the battle. They sent to their friends, the Guild of Librarians, who descended on the Castle and the White Queen in a cloud of pigeons. Dotland met the Black Dot Queen on the Field of Sneak armed with Shields of Statistics and the Queen was turned back but not vanquished. This year the Black Queen again "borrowed" the Sword of RightSizing and managed to lop off Navy Dot and Pink Dot before the Guild of Librarians and Dotland's other friends could be alerted. Learning of the Black Dot Queen's perfidy, the Guild of Librarians rallied the villages and the peasants in support of Dotland. The White Queen heard their pleas and created the D1 Summit to bring peace to the Duchy. The Black Queen was forced to sheathe the Sword and defend herself with only words. However, even without the Sword of RightSizing, the Black Dot Queen has a formidable array of weapons, possibly even WMD. In addition she has the Forces of Darkness, controlled by GoG, at her disposal. With the D1 Summit Proclamation the Black Dot Queen has committed to Continuing Committees of Continual Conversation which we can hope will keep her too busy to use the Sword of Rightsizing again. Dotland can use the reprieve to build up their defenses and search for the rumored arsenal of WMD.

For more about the great history of the Librarians, check out Warrior Librarian Weekly and The Lipstick Librarian.
And there's more on this link http://web.simmons.edu/~schwartz/lis-humour.html
Great Moments in the History of Technical Services is a favorite in Dotland

A New Proclamation

Yesterday the Black Queen issued a proclamation to ALL LibraryLand, not just her Special friends. She urged members of the Library Guild, villagers and even peasants to meet, to discuss issues, to offer feedback. Veteran Duchy watchers consider this proclamation a major departure from her usual Divide and Conquer strategy. Has the Black Dot Queen been influenced by the White Queen?

















The White Queen using her influence on the Black Dot Queen.

Teachers as experts, what a concept!

From newschools.org

What creates all of the satisfied parent-customers? It's the teachers.
Recruit the best teachers you can possibly find. Treat them as
professionals, experts in their fields who don't have to be told what to do in a classroom.

If we had been treated like experts from the beginning of this fiasco, think about how different things would be. Is this why the Dots are agitated?

Charms and spells and glue and tape

There is a rumored that the Black Queen has been casting spells upon the attendees at the D1 Summit meetings. It is said that she has a Silence Spell that compels them all to silence. However, there are counterspells for the Silence Spell. Perhaps some attendees were wise enough to come prepared for the Black Queen's trickery. It has also been suggested that the White Queen has a even stronger Sit-Down-And-Shut-Up spell that works on the Black Queen. The Dots wish she would use it on GoG.
In the meantime, unrest continues in the Duchy. The villages without peasants are angry. The villages without glue are angry. The villages without POs are angry. Faced with shortages, the Dots try to come up with creative alternatives to glue and tape. Turquoise managed to acquire several reams of paper from a nearby hamlet. The decision to continue sending invoices to Dotland was widely celebrated because invoices are blank on the back and can be reused! Using power cords to tie packages was suggested but discarded in favor of saving string. There are rumored to be some goodly balls of string hidden about. The Dots have vowed to begin searching for these treasures.

The reign of King Hairboy the Infamous

There are those who say all of the woes in the Duchy go back to the reign of infamous King Hairboy and the nefarious actions that vanquished (or vanished) the well-loved Library Queen. Could it be that Hairboy looted the Duchy treasury to pay for hair products and styling?
The D1 Summit meeting with the Dots and White Queen has been rescheduled and expanded to include the Black Dot Queen. The Dots will be going over their agendas again to make sure that all of the important issues are covered. A big item on the agenda will probably be the Black Queen's not very well concealed desire to make them all disappear. An unreliable source reports that some librarians also feel that the Black Queen would like librarians to disappear also. Maybe the White Queen is hearing this in the other meetings as well.
To cheer you up even further, Pennsylvania has just opened a new high school with NO LIBRARY (Microsoft helped.) To read an opinion from someone who doesn't think Google makes a good librarian, click here.

All is well in the Duchy---NOT

The Dots heard from Black Dot Castle that the Black Queen's plans are working wonderfully. The villages and peasants are content and happy and all is well in the Duchy. The Dots wonder why the villages and peasants they talk to are not content and happy. Can it be there is a failure to communicate here?
Silver also heard that the Black Queen is assuring everyone that Silver's new robes and wizard's hat are almost ready. Silver is wondering, "If the new robes are for me, why haven't I been measured? Maybe it's to be a surprise. Do you suppose there will be cake?"

Perception is everything!
That's the favorite saying of the Black Dot Queen. I think I'm beginning to understand what she means by perception. I always thought of perception as meaning seeing, recognizing, maybe even understanding. I don't think that's quite what she means. In her terms it's not what we see or recognize. It's what we are willing to admit to seeing in public. We can all see that this Queen has no clothes. We can all see that the whole Duchy library infrastructure has been badly broken. A telling symptom is that most of the communication about issues is clandestine rather than open. As long as there is no little or no open discussion, the Black Queen can say "See, it was just a few complainers. Everyone is settling down now."
On another note, Gold suggested today that the level of chaos right now is not just a sign of mismanagement but of interference by the forces of Evil, KAOS! Is the Black Queen secretly an agent of KAOS? Where is Maxwell Smart when we need him?

Maybe Dots watched "Network" on cable this weekend?

The dilemma with Dibbles
Is your village afflicted with Dibbles? No, not tribbles, Dibbles. Tribbles are cute, furry, lovable, and very cheap. Dibbles are expensive, ugly, heavy, blunt instruments for destroying literacy. Want to see what some of the experts say about Dibbles? Check out the Vermont Society for Study of Education.
After looking at the site, I asked someone why on earth the Duchy is buying Dibbles. The response I received was "Nickleby". Duchies that buy Dibbles get more more from Nickleby's friend, Emporer Shrub, than Duchies that don't buy Dibbles. Is Dibbles a division of Halliburton?

Annals of bad management.
The Black Queen has won several awards for technology, however, nothing can compare with her outstanding performance as a Bad Manager with The Plan to eliminate Dotland hitting a new low-low-low. Let's just hit the high spots of that plan. The Plan was developed without consulting the stakeholders (only 2 principals were involved, no office managers, no Duchy Castle personnel, no REAL librarians, no library staff) There was NO impact study. We were told that The Plan would only be a pilot study involving only 19 villages. Instead before the pilots even started the Plan was !BAM! dropped on the whole Duchy. That's the big picture of The Plan. When you get to the details it gets even better. No communication, no attempt to ever present The Plan to the stakeholders so they could adapt to it, no information about the Plan developed and distributed. The Black DOT Queen has queenfully resisted any temptation to Do Things Right. At every possible juncture she has Made the Wrong Decision. It's practically supernatural. Any normal human would have done the right thing by accident once or twice. She is definitely the Queen of Bad Management.
An honorable mention award should also go to the local Post Office for deciding to eliminate the number system and go back to people standing in line. Some have suggested that the Post Office is working on their own version of The Plan to make customers vanish.

Dotland meeting canceled! White Queen not seriously injured!
This morning the White Queen was slightly injured in a fall and the long awaited meeting with Dotland was canceled. (Should we ask if the Black Queen has an alibi for this morning?) An uneasy quiet persists in the Duchy. Villages report that all is not well in the village treasuries. Accounting mistakes, missing paperwork, and unexpected shortages are reported. The villages cry out for information and the Black Queen remains silent. Yep, not just a river in Egypt.

Dispatches from Dotland
All the Dots have been preparing for their part of the D1 Summit tomorrow, trying to get their anger and frustration out of the way before meeting with the White Queen. Rumor is that some of the villagers are pretty frustrated as well. Could we send the Black Dot Queen to Swiss Finishing School so she can learn to answer her mail and and send thank you notes like a well brought up little Queen? And what can we do about her snaky friend? Suggestions are welcome. Maybe we should have a contest? Best Solution to the GoG problem - Winner gets a picture of an all expenses paid trip to the luxurious Dotland Retreat in Bora Bora.

True Crime Weekly

Librarians on Drugs?

Is drug use rampant in the Duchy? Sources inside Dotland have reported seeing Dots huddled in corners surreptiously exchanging HOMEOPATHIC drugs and giggling wildly . When pressured some Dots have admited to abusing Nat Mur and blame it on the stress of dealing with the Black Dot Queen. In the villages, both peasants and librarians have admited to increased use of NSAIDs, Happy Hour, and massages. What is the Duchy doing to curb this epidemic? The Black Dot Queen denies being aware of any problems. What drug is she using?

Dotland Daily Times

A reliable source brought us the first reports from the on-going D1 summit talks. The points covered in the talks so far have been:

• The Black Dot Queen will post a notice for a library crier to cry the benefits of school libraries to all and sundry
• The Black Dot Queen will post a notice for a full time library technology wizard to deal with the imps that live inside the technology. Inside sources claim that this position is intended for Silver. However, some of Silver's friends are not sure. "You know that Silver does not believe technology works before 10 am" said one. "Silver does not believe in anything before 10 am" her friend retorted.
• The Duchy will replace Folly with Destiny. (If you take up Folly, Destiny with surely follow.)
• Dotland is forever.
• Silver is back.

The D1 Summit will continue this week. Dotland is expected to be involved in the talks later this week.

Reviews

Ella Enchanted, 2004, is a Fractured Fairy Tale, the story of Ella whose gift from the flaky and vindictive Fairy Godmother Lucinda, played by Viveca A. Fox, was to do everything she is told. Anne Hathaway is the always obedient Ella and Hugh Dancy is Prince Char, a big hit at medieval mall openings. Fans of the book, Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine, aren't happy with the plot liberties taken by the movie, such as the addition of Sir Edgar's slimy sidekick, Heston, the snake. Until seeing this movie I had never realized quite how green and scaly GoG is. There are some good bits of dialogue...Sir Edgar proclaiming to Prince Char "Image is everything". Sound familiar? I think this movie qualifies as High Concept with the universal fairy tale theme and lots of references to fairy tale and movie conventions including the obligatory fight scene a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The brief appearance of the three ogres in the final big dance scene had to be a direct reference, overalls and all, to the Soggy Bottom boys dancing to "I'm in the jailhouse now" in O Brother, where art thou. Ella Enchanted is not a great movie, but it is a cute movie worth seeing.

Dotland Sunday Times

"First weeks of school a HUGE success" reports Black Dot Queen Magog.

"Good news is coming in from all over the duchy. All of our students, our teachers, and our administrators are above average."

Dotland Daily

True Crime Weekly retracts!

True Crime Weekly reported earlier on mysterious disappearances in Dotland. This reporter has learned that True Crime Weekly now attributes that report to a single misguided reporter who has "left the duchy". Dotland Daily is happy to report the actual facts about the disappearances in Dotland. The first Dot to "disappear" was Navy. Reliable sources report that Navy has assumed the persona of First Dit and is now in Busland. Despite occasional trauma from buses backing up, Navy is well and corresponding regularly with old friends in Dotland. However, Dotland and Bits still miss Navy dreadfully. The next disappearance was Pink. She has since reported in from Cajero-by-the-Freeway and was rumored to have visited Dotland recently. Next was Red who went to work for the Welcome Wagon. Without Pink and Red, the White Light of Dotland is distinctly off-colour. The most mysterious disappearance was Silver, who disappeared and reappeared several times. You could say she "flickered." Actually, some Dots and the White Queen claim that Silver was always there despite contrary statements by the Black Queen. The status at press time is that all parties now report the Silver is still in Dotland and will continue to be in Dotland despite occasional forays to Studioville.

Future of Dotland in hands of Queens

Despite meetings with the Black Queen and the White Queen, there is still duchy-wide uneasiness about the future of Dotland. The White Queen is telling everyone that Dotland will never disappear. The Dots are concerned that the Queen is confusing the actual Dots of Dotland with a tastefully framed picture of the Dots that has appeared in several places recently. The Dots are afraid the picture will be kept and the actual Dots will be Ditted. It is hoped that the ongoing D1 Summit talks will clarify the situation.

The Black Queen always gets such a kick out of Purple!